Our daughter has been exclusively breast fed for 4 months and my wife needs a break. We've tried like 5 different bottles and she just screams. Tried breast milk, formula, everything. My wife is exhausted and frustrated and I feel helpless because I can't feed her. Has anyone dealt with this? Do we just keep trying or is there something we're missing?
That's tough man. We tried 6 different bottles before one finally worked. Take a break for a couple days and try again - sometimes they just need a reset. Your wife deserves that break though.
Have you tried different bottle types? We had to switch brands completely. Also timing matters - try when she's not super hungry but not completely full either. And paced bottle feeding helps simulate breastfeeding better. Your wife definitely deserves that break too.
Took us forever to get our oldest on a bottle. One thing that finally worked was having someone else try feeding her, not the mom. Sometimes they just need a different person. Also we warmed the bottle to body temperature which helped. Hang in there, it's rough for a few weeks but you'll get there.
How long have you been trying? My wife went through this exact thing at 4 months. We ended up using one of those slow flow bottles and it took about two weeks of daily attempts. The key was not stressing about it because babies can sense that anxiety. Easier said than done though.
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We struggled with this too at 4 months. My son finally took a bottle when we tried the slower flow nipples and warmed the milk closer to body temp. Might be worth experimenting with temperature if you haven't yet.